High school students and adults from cities across America, including New Orleans, spent Tuesday working on the Katrina recovery effort at a Lakeview home, their sweat and muscles teaching a lesson about helping others.

"I think it is really good helping to rebuild the city and getting to meet the different people who were affected,” said Kavin Keller, Jesuit High School student.

Flood victims formed The Beacon of Hope Resource Center after Katrina to help other flood victims coordinate recovery efforts. Three years later, their case managers through 12 centers are still providing guidance and help to those rebuilding their homes in 22 neighborhoods, from Lakeview to Gentilly and the 9th Ward.

"We have 100 to 200 volunteers that meet here every morning," said Beacon of Hope administrator Connie Uddo. "All of these are work requests that we get from residents, home owners individually that we go to their homes help them. We're either landscaping them, painting them, or we're still gutting homes, believe it or not."

Even as the recovery continues in New Orleans, the victims of Katrina are reaching out to help the victims of the newest flood. They are looking at what's happening in Iowa.

"You know how helpless those people feel because we felt it ourselves, and we all had the outpouring of support we had from people we didn't know, and we said you know how it felt, and it gave us the hope that we could get through all this. And this is the opportunity that we can share that with them," said Al Petrie, co-chair of the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association.

Today they raised the sign asking for prayers and donations to help Iowa flood victims, as the Lakeview Civic Improvement Association, the Beacon of Hope, and the St. Paul's Homecoming Center made the first $1500 in donations.

"We're collecting donations of cash. We're going to turn around and buy gift cards, either Lowe's, Home Depot, or some national company like Wal-Mart," said Beacon of Hope founder Denise Thornton.

They are working with rescue groups in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to get the gift cards directly to flood victims there, so they can buy repair supplies and essentials quickly.

"They just need supplies, food, clothing, water; just whatever it is that they need," Thornton said.

"I think that's really good, you know, branching out to not only help New Orleans but, you know, to help other people," Keller said.

It is a lesson about using our experience to help others that was not lost on Keller or Uddo's daughter.

"She said Mom,” Uddo said. “Aren't we going to go, and I just looked at her, and said, you mean go to Iowa? You want to go to Iowa, and she said, don't you think we should? I mean we could teach them so much."